May 2024 | Donegal Railway Museum

Cruinniú na nÓg 2024

A day of free creativity for children and young people
Join us for a Family Fun event hosted by the Donegal Town Community Chamber and the Donegal Railway Museum to celebrate our town’s 550th anniversary! 🎪🎨🚂

Mark your calendars for Saturday, 15th June , from 12-4pm at the Donegal Railway Museum
Get ready for a day jam-packed with activities including a LEGO workshop, storytelling and puzzles, circus skills workshop, arts & crafts, and games! 🎈
Thank you to Donegal County Council and Creative Ireland for providing funding for this event. Best of all? This event is free of charge, and everyone is welcome, so join in and unleash your creative spirit.
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Ireland is the first, and only, country in the world to have a national day of free creativity for children and young people under 18. Cruinniú na nÓg is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme’s Creative Youth Plan to enable the creative potential of children and young people.

The Award Winning Donegal Railway Museum is delighted to announce the opening of a new exhibition titled the “550 Donegal Town Anniversary Exhibition” at the Museum. This event is the Museum’s contribution to the Anniversary year and is the first official 550 event of the year.

Niall McCaughan, Manager of the Railway Museum stated: “The town that the County takes its name from has a fantastic history to it, and is one that needs to be told, to locals and to visitors. This is of particular importance in the town’s 550^th Anniversary. We had always felt that the town itself did not have a central place where its unique story could be told. There were bits and pieces of the story told at various locations, however, there really was a need for somewhere centrally where people could go to learn about it, and more interestingly, come across it in unusual settings, particularly in the anniversary year.

Thus back in 2023 we sought and were awarded funding from Donegal Council’s Culture & Creativity Project Awards Scheme to create a mobile exhibition which gathered this information, and using artefacts, display units, pop-ups and other tools, tell our story. We were also delighted to have received contributions for our displays from three landmark organisations in Donegal Town, Magee 1866, Hanna Hats, and Donegal Castle. This exhibition will run not only in the museum itself, but will be taken out and about to community groups, schools, retail outlet, etc., where we can directly inform and educate all, on the history of this important town.”

This project was kindly funded through Donegal Culture & Creativity Project Awards Scheme, promoting collaboration and fostering creativity as envisaged in the Creative Ireland programme. Creative Ireland is a culture-based programme designed to promote individual, community and national well-being and is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, and Donegal County Council. Anyone interested in hosting the exhibition during this anniversary year should contact the museum directly.

The Award Winning Donegal Railway Museum is delighted to announce that its famous “Easter Family Funday” is back again, bigger and better than ever before, on Easter Saturday.

The Easter Bunny stated: “I am really excited about my return to the museum. This is a great experience for kids and families, which includes not only a ride on our ride-on train to see me and receive a gift (and maybe even a Selfie), but also an art workshop, Easter puzzles to solve, displays to see, model railways, an opportunity to see the famous Donegal Steam Engine Drumboe up close, and much much more.

The cost is just €10 per child, €5 for adults. As everything is indoors, it’s not weather dependent. After our sell-out family Santa event in December, interest is expected to be high; families will have individual time slots. Our Easter Bunny is looking forward to seeing you all.

Dates & Times to see the Easter Bunny: Saturday 30^th March, 12:30pm-5:30pm

Telephone (074) 9722655 to book your individual time slot!

€10 per Child, €5 per adult.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin TD, today announced a list of organisations awarded funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs Shared Island Civic Society Fund.

Selected from across the civic society sector, north and south, 35 projects were granted funding. Each of these projects have a strong cross border dimension and will facilitate the development of new links and strengthen existing relationships on issues of common concern for civic society groups on both sides of the border. One of these was the Award Winning Railway Museum in Donegal Town.

The Donegal Railway Museum is delighted to have been awarded a grant from the Shared Island Civic Society Fund towards two cross-border railway heritage conferences, one in Donegal Town and the other in Derry, as well as the production of a booklet. This innovative project establishes a new working relationship between the Donegal Railway Museum and Foyle Valley Railway Museum in Derry who were an obvious partner for this innovative cross-border project.The conference will include displays, panel discussions, model layouts, and a focus on recording stories about the railways that once operated across the North West. These events are planned towards the end of 2024, with a new publication being produced from it in early 2025.

Niall McCaughan, Manager of the Donegal Railway Museum stated: We are delighted to have secured this funding which is a new one for us, particularly linking in for the first time with our colleagues at Foyle Valley Railway in Derry. The North West has a unique story to tell about the railways that once operated here, and these series of events will help us engage the wider public to tell this story. Here we intend to use the railways, as a “vehicle” to bring disconnected communities together to start new conversations, establish new partnerships, looking back as well as to the future.”

Dermot O’Hara, Destined CEO where Foyle Valley Railway are based stated: “We were delighted to be approached by Donegal Railway Museum in relation to this new cross border project. We are fortunate to have a great collection of Donegal Railway stock on site which operated on both sides of the border, and of course our own location was one of the sites where trains departed for Donegal. This project gives us the opportunity to talk about the strong links between the border communities, the negative effects that the closure of the railways here had on the region, but also to look to the future.”

In the coming months, more details will be released about the series of events.